Why MYSTERIES? Because that is the genre I read. Why PARADISE? Because that is where I live.
Among other things, this blog, the result of a 2008 New Year's resolution, will act as a record of books that I've read, and random thoughts.

30 March 2009

Now I don't need a readathon, and really can't fit it in with all the other things I do, but just in case you have time to do it, there is one running on April 18-19, 2009

You'll find FAQs and details here. And there are prizes, and buttons in abundance that you can add to your blog etc. So far there are nearly 40 people signed up.Three people: Hannah (WordLily), Ana (Nymeth), and Trish (Hey Lady!) are managing this one.

29 March 2009

Last week I commented I was just getting back to normal after some time away. Well, this week normality has struck.

Poll resultsI ran a poll during the week that asked people to consider the last 10 books they had read: how many of them were translations into English. It probably wasn't a terribly well constructed poll but 21 people answered:

all of them - 0

7-9 1 person

4-6 3 people

1-3 13 people

none - 4 people

So over 75% of us have read at least one translated book among our last 10, and for many the number was much higher than that.With so much Scandinavian crime fiction on the market, it is obviously becoming more common.If you'd like some recommendations click here.

This week's poll relates to your growing TBR. Don't know what that is? Check here.C'mon, confess, how many unread books do you have lying around? Go count them up and then pop in and participate in the poll in the right hand margin of MYSTERIES IN PARADISE.

There's a competition running on my blog until the end of March. You could win a copy of Louise Penny's THE CRUELLEST MONTH. You have to answer some questions, but it is not so hard to find the answers, as I tell you where to look. Click here.

First published in 2005, English translation from German by Anthea Bell 2006, published Random House 2006, 351 pages, ISBN 978-0-385-60994-4

The premise of THREE BAGS FULL is simple. Glenkill shepherd George Glenn is found dead in the paddock, murdered, a heavy spade stuck through his middle. So we have a murder mystery.

But what isn't so simple is that the tale of the investigation is told from the point of view of his flock, a rag taggle collection of rare breeds put together by George for their wool and rarity. George has been working on their intelligence too, reading to them every day. The cleverest sheep in the flock is Miss Maple, and her enquiring mind won't let her leave the puzzle of George's death alone. She is assisted by some other notable characters such as Othello, a black Hebridean sheep with four horns, who was once in a circus, and Mopple, a very stout Merino ram who never forgets anything.

Miss Maple impatiently scraped grass and earth up with her hoof. 'But it happened,' she said. 'There must be an end to the story. If George had finished the detective story we would know how it ended. And I want to know. You want to know too, I know you're curious about it. You just don't want to bother your sheepy heads.'

'It's too much for us,' said Cordelia, embarrassed. 'So many human things that we can't understand. And there's no-one to explain words to us now.'

Seeing things from a sheep's point of view with half-understanding can certainly be extremely perplexing and I thought Swann did a very good job of passing this perplexity on to the reader. There were times I was really scratching my head trying to work out what on earth was happening. I think I got the events straight, and I certainly know who killed George.

There were glimmers of ANIMAL FARM in this book, but Swann's ability to sustain the satire is nowhere near as good as Orwell's. There are some interesting characters among the flock, and also among the townspeople. We are given lots of clues that enable us to piece together events that have occurred in the last seven years (the span of a sheep's memory).

But this is not a book that will suit the impatient reader. Other reviewers have commented on how slow it is in patches, and I don't think Leonie Swann manages to sustain it's allegorical nature all the way through.

How to categorise it? A cozy perhaps, but not particularly light. There are little puzzles that keep the grey cells working all the time, and it is easy to miss a clue or two, with the result that what is happening becomes totally incomprehensible. There's humour too - Melmoth the disappearing ram for example; the minister hearing confession behind the grill and then discovering it is actually Othello in the box; the Winter Lamb, a troublemaker with a yen to be involved.

28 March 2009

This week's Weekly Geek task relates to our reviews and linking to each other's.

1. Write a post encouraging readers to look through your archives (if you have your reviews in a particular place on your blog, point them there), and find the books that they have also written reviews. Tell them to leave a link to their review on your review post. For example, I've written a review for Gods Behaving Badly and Jane Doe leaves a link to her review of Gods Behaving Badly in the comments section of my review.2. Edit your reviews to include those links in the body of the review post.3. Visit other Weekly Geeks and go through their reviews. Leave links for them.4. Leave a note somewhere on your blog to let people know this is your new policy.5. Write a post later this week letting us know how your project is going!

I have been trying to do this as a general policy for some time whenever I write a new book review.

I have identified a number of other crime fiction bloggers, and often, but I must confess not always, check to see if they have also reviewed this book. If they have I put a link to their review on the bottom of mine.

My reviews are all listed at Smik's Reviews and you'll find that I have also created a customised search of the blogs of fellow crime fiction bloggers. I have only been blogging for about 15 months and so I have 3 lists: the books I reviewed in 2008, the books I have reviewed so far in 2009, and a complete list of nearly 150 books so far.

The crime fiction blogs I watch are found on Crime Fiction Journeys and you'll find the customised search called Crime Fiction Search on the top right of both Crime Fiction Journeys and on the top right of this page. There's an explanation of how Crime Fiction Search was created in this post.

So, for example, I am currently reading THREE BAGS FULL by Leonie Swann, and hope to write my review before the weekend is out. If I search my Crime Fiction Search for THREE BAGS FULL, then I can see who else has talked about it in their blog. That makes it reasonably easy for me to create links to their blog pages.

One of the reasons for doing this linking is to help create a community of bloggers with similar interests.

So, here is an invitation.If you read and review crime fiction, even occasionally, check whether I have your blog listed on Crime Fiction Journeys. If you are not there, let me know, and I'll remedy that, but I'll also add your blog to the Google list for my customised search.If you would like to make use of my Crime Fiction search yourself, I can email you the code if you would like it, or the list of blogs that it searches.

You may answer via a comment - I have put Comments into moderation to facilitate this.Even if you don't actually want a copy of the book, you can enter the competition. Just say in your comment that you don't want a copy.I will take entries until the end of March and if there is more than one winner I'll pick the winner's name out of a hat.At the beginning of April I will announce the correct answers, as well as who has won the book, and invite the person to contact me by email.

What is the name of the village in which Louise Penny sets her series featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache?

What festive season is THE CRUELLEST MONTH set in?

Which of her books did Louise Penny win the John Creasey New Blood Dagger with?

Name 2 other awards this particular book won (the book in Q3 that is)

Two of Penny's books have had different titles for US and Canadian publications. Give both titles of one of them.

What is the name of the house where the seance was held in THE CRUELLEST MONTH?

What rating did I give THE CRUELLEST MONTH?

When Louise Penny has her birthday this year, how old will she be?

UND DIE FURCHT GEBIERT DEN ZORN is the title of the German publication of which Canadian title?

In DEAD COLD a spectator is killed while watching a sports match. What was the sport, and how was the person killed?

26 March 2009

Blurb courtesy Fantastic Fiction:At forty, Paul Biegler's world seemed to have come to an end: after ten years as DA in his small town in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the people had elected a new hero, a young army veteran. And Biegler had been spending a lot of time fishing and thinking about his future. Then the call came from Laura Mannion: her husband had been arrested on a charge of murder. She said that the man her husband had killed had assaulted her. Suddenly, Polly, as he is known to the entire town, sees his opportunity: maybe he can show his rival that he can defend as well as he can prosecute. What follows is one of the most brilliant courtroom dramas of all time, as Polly puts together his defence and minutely examines the seething emotions under the placid surface of his town.

Apparently the novel is based on a true murder that happened in Michigan over 50 years ago, this novel is a detailed description of a famous murder trial. From the beginning of the novel, one is quite aware of the fact that army Lt Manion killed Barney Quill. There are too many witnesses who saw him commit the offence, and in fact he does not deny it. What the reader is forced to consider right up until to the end of the book is whether or not Manion is blameworthy and also whether or not the killing was acceptable in the light of what precipitated the act.

Does anyone remember the book? Perhaps you remember the film. I think I do, just...The best-selling novel was turned into an Academy Award nominated film -- directed by Otto Preminger and starring Jimmy Stewart -- that was released July 1, 1959. Duke Ellington wrote the music for the movie. According to the Wikepedia article, it is critically acclaimed as one of the best trial movies of all time.

25 March 2009

It was only after I discovered a review of Vanda Symon's OVERKILL in this month's magazine, that it occurred to me that I had never blogged about it.The reviewer's opinion of OVERKILL wasn't quite as high as mine, but he did give it 4 stars and Highly Recommended.

Anyway, if you click on the image to the right you should get taken to a sample magazine, available at all good newsagents and book shops in Australia and New Zealand. Good price too! It contains a good range of in-depth articles, recommendations on all genres but a couple of pages of new crime fiction, and annually they have a crime fiction feature.

When you are subscriber to the online magazine, there all sorts of other goodies you can access, like first chapters etc.

24 March 2009

When top British scientist Malcolm Prince died he had just recently announced a break through discovery, a formula worth millions to somebody. The big problem was that Prince had told no-one exactly what he had been working on, but everyone was sure that it was really important.

So how to find out exactly what he had discovered? International agencies, in particular MI4, the CIA, and Danish intelligence, are keen to find out, and compete with each other to track down people who might know Prince's secret. The quest becomes a global one, moving from London, to Copenhagen, Hong Kong, and even Australia.

My major problem with THE MIND OF A GENIUS was that I found the plot rather tenuous. The idea of a scientist working on a project with nobody knowing what it was about was rather odd. Even odder was that he had announced a breakthrough and that he had discovered a world shattering formula, but had still released no further information. The idea that international agencies would expend so much time, money and energy trying to work out what he had discovered also strained credibility, although it did keep me reading to the end to find out whether all the effort was worth it. The problem was that it didn't really add to developing the tension in the novel.

My other problem was a stylistic one. Snowdon attempts to write in a rather naive style and in every change of scene we are told in some detail what the characters are wearing. I kept looking for significance in the colours chosen but I'm not sure there was any. It came to feel to me like something that needed a lot of tightening up. Indeed if there was no clothing description, I began to worry whether I had missed it. The same naive style extends to dialogue and description of action, and here again I felt a lot of editing was needed.

THE MIND OF A GENIUS is David Snowdon's second novel. It has been the subject of an extended cyber blog tour, and indeed this review was originally meant to be part of that tour. A significant number of people have "interviewed" David about the book. David's own web site is here. An extract of the book is available here.

I responded, saying 40 steps from my front door looks nothing like that.Judge for yourself!Blame the drought, autumn, a dead tree, and a much needed (according to husband) cull of overgrown and unwanted plants.

22 March 2009

After you've been away on holidays, it always seems to take a big effort to get back to normal doesn't it?

If you have a fairly active online life then there's emails and blog comments to start with. I always read a lot when I am away so there are book reviews to be posted. And that's before you start with catching up with what others have been doing on their blogs.

It is always nice to be home again though and to get back into your normal routine.

I did have a poll running when I was away: a bit of a no-brainer really, asking people if they had a blog. Well, 24 people participated in the poll and 23 of them actually had a blog of their own. But in the time the poll was running about 1500 people visited my blog, so the participation rate wasn't very high was it?

New pollI seem to be reading a lot of books that have been translated into English recently.And yet I read an email from somebody saying that a book she had recently finished was the first translation she had ever read.So what about you?Come in and participate in my poll.Of the last 10 books you've read, how many were translations into English?The poll is at the top of the right hand column.The books I read in translation were

21 March 2009

This week's Weekly Geek Challenge relates to historical fiction and to a period that I love. And of course in my case, it will relate also to crime fiction.

Here is the challenge:Let's take a magical history tour this week, with a focus on Historical Fiction. That is, contemporary novels with a historical setting. {I've now selected from the choices}Is there a particular era that you love reading about? Tell us about it--give us a book list, if you'd like. Include pictures or some fun facts from that time period, maybe link to a website that focuses on that time.Educate us.

This challenge has come at a very opportune time in my reading. One of the periods that I seem to read a lot of fiction set in is the decade or so immediately after World War One, i.e. 1919-1932, and particularly, although not exclusively British crime fiction.

Here are a few titles to think about. The links are to reviews I've recently written, but I'll also give a short summary here.

TOUCHSTONE by Laurie R. KingThe main story is set against the impending General Strike of 1926, a time when many are hoping for the collapse of the British government, and some sort of Revolution. For many of the characters the agenda is one of high political ideals, of a possible role for themselves in a new order. For Harris Stuyvesant though the agenda is personal. It is also a story of manipulation, but it wasn't until the last 20 or so pages that I thought I knew what was going to happen, and the identity of the bomber.HER ROYAL SPYNESS, Rhys BowenGeorgie, Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie, related to the king of England through his grandmother Queen Victoria, is 34th in line to the English throne. Georgie is the product of her father's second marriage to a "bolter", and at 21 is living in Castle Rannoch with no real income and no prospects.She determines to take charge of her own future when she overhears a conversation between her half brother Binky and his wife Fig about the Queen's intentions to use Georgie as marriage bait for a visiting Romanian Royal. Georgie decides to make her escape to Rannoch House in London despite the fact that she will have no maid or other help in the house with her. Queen Mary hears that she has come to London and commissions Georgie to be her eyes and ears in the Prince of Wales' escalating affair with an American woman.The sequel is A ROYAL PAINThese are pretty light and frothy reads, with a backing of genuine research.

And of course, my current project, the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge, allows me to wallow in the historical setting of the 1920s. Agatha Christie was such a good observer of what is happening to the society in which she lives.

Here are some other books to think about:

MURDER IN MONTPARNASSE by Kerry Greenwood. My rating 4.6A Phryne Fisher Mystery read by Julia Davis. At the end of World War 1 in Paris, Bert, Cec and 5 other Australian soldiers witness a murder when a man is pushed under a Paris train. Now, in Australia in 1928, two are very recently dead and Bert and Cec believe they are being targetted. Phryne was in Paris in 1918 and remembers the train incident. It also brings back memories of the man she was infatuated with then. Now she learns that he has recently arrived in Melbourne.

THE SHIFTING FOG (aka THE HOUSE AT RIVERTON) by Kate Morton. My rating 4.7Set mainly during World War I and immediately after it. Six months before the war starts young Grace Bradley, 14, takes up a position as a housemaid at Riverton Manor. Eighty four years on, she is contacted by a young female filmmaker who is making a romance film about the death of Robbie Harrison, a young poet, who suicided at the house during a mid summer's eve party in 1924. Many will argue this is not a murder mystery, but you'll have to decide for yourself.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER by Jacqueline Winspear. My rating 4.6This novel is set some time after the first in the Maisie Dobbs series. Maisie is now an established detective with rooms of her own and an assistant. It's now the early Spring of 1930. Her friend Detective Inspector Stratton of Scotland Yard's Murder Squad is investigating a murder case in Coulsden, while Maisie has been summoned to Dulwich to find a runaway heiress. The woman is the daughter of Joseph Waite, a wealthy self-made man who has lavished her with privilege but kept her in a gilded cage. His domineering ways have driven her off before, and now she's bolted again. Waite's instructions are to find his daughter and bring her home. When Maisie looks into the disappearance she finds a chilling link to Stratton's murder case, and to the terrible legacy of The Great War.

PARDONABLE LIES by Jacqueline Winspear. My rating 4.6A deathbed plea from his wife leads Sir Cecil Lawton to seek the aid of Maisie Dobbs to confirm that his son, an aviator in the Great War, did actually die when his plane crashed in France. It was something his wife never accepted and it was a torment that drove her mad. Lawton believes his son is dead and is expecting Maisie to confirm just that. Maisie was in France during the War herself as a nurse and it is where her friend Simon was wounded and brain-damaged, so going back to France is no easy thing for Maisie. She takes on an extra mission - to find out for her friend Priscilla Evernden what happened to one of her three brothers who were also killed there. I would call this book a comfortable, rather old-fashioned read, which are the qualities that I liked in the first book in the series, and which led others to dislike the book.

Bennett Grey survived being blown up at the end of World War I. In fact he believes he was blown to pieces and somehow miraculously re-assembled. With the experience came the new ability to see into people, to "feel" accurately whether they are telling the truth. When his ability is noticed he becomes a "touchstone" for British intelligence, useful in prisoner interrogation, and in the development of lie detection technology. Upset by the brutality of the interrogations he participates in, he withdraws from the project and becomes a recluse, abandoning the woman he was to marry, and going to live in Cornwall.

He emerges to help Harris Stuyvesant, an American agent attached the Bureau of Investigation, who is looking for an archist, a bomber, thought to be British, already responsible for a number of deaths in the USA.Their quest leads them to a houseparty held near Oxford, to the home of the woman whom Grey still loves, so that the American can get close to the man whom he believes is the bomber.

The main story is set against the impending General Strike of 1926, a time when many are hoping for the collapse of the British government, and some sort of Revolution. For many of the characters the agenda is one of high political ideals, of a possible role for themselves in a new order. For Harris Stuyvesant though the agenda is personal. It is also a story of manipulation, but it wasn't until the last 20 or so pages that I thought I knew what was going to happen, and the identity of the bomber.

TOUCHSTONE came to my attention originally because it was short-listed for Left Coast Crime's THE BRUCE ALEXANDER MEMORIAL HISTORICAL MYSTERY. While I was at LCC I hade the opportunity to attend a couple of panels that Laurie King was on, and also to get Laurie to sign a copy of the book for me.

I originally thought, about TOUCHSTONE, "another American writer rather cheekily setting her novel in England", but I have been pleasantly surprised. Like Elizabeth George's, Laurie R. King's writing has an authentic English feel to it. The story reflects an incredible depth of research, and only the occasional American spelling points to the nationality of the author (and the location of the publisher).

I've really only been home for a few days and already my library has filled my shelves to overflowing.I made sure to return all books (or suspend them) before I went away just under 3 weeks ago.But my wonderful library already had books for me to collect and so this week the total is 15.Here they are:

THREE BAGS FULL: A SHEEP DETECTIVE STORY by Swann, Leonie.

MURDER ON A MIDSUMMER NIGHT by Greenwood, Kerry.

THE HERRING SELLER'S APPRENTICE: A GRIPPING TALE OF MURDER, DECEIT AND CHOCOLATE by Tyler, L. C.

19 March 2009

The chain through which a blog award like this one progresses is a fascinating one. Mine has come from Cathy of Kittling Books, who got hers from Dorte of DJs krimblog. There are some very familiar awardees among both of their choices.

The idea of these awards is to pass them on to unsuspecting victims (oops! I meant recipients of course) so, in spreading the love I will try to name 10 awardees.

IF YOU ARE ONE OF MY NOMINEES, PLEASE GO AHEAD AND....1. Put the logo on your blog or post.2. Nominate up to 10 blogs which show great attitude and/or gratitude!3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.5. Remember to link to the person from whom you received your award.

17 March 2009

Pillars of the community in a remote Swedish village, a pastor and his wife and their son, a teacher, are shot dead one night. The pastor has recently been investigating Satanism in his village, and all the signs are indicating that this may be a cult killing. It seems likely that the remaining member of the pastor's family, a daughter in London, may be in some danger and so the investigation takes Detective Inspector Irene Huss from Goteborg to England. When interviewing the daughter becomes difficult Irene feels that the Satanist clues are not really pointing to the answer. There are also suspects in the village, even amongst those who will take over from the pastor.

This is the third of Helene Tursten's Swedish police procedurals to be translated into English, and it will be a great pity if there are no more, which I believe at present may be the case. I believe there are another 5 Irene Huss novels not yet translated into English.

I don't think THE GLASS DEVIL is the strongest of the three we have seen so far. I'm not sure either about the opening Prologue and just how some of that fits in with the main story. There are patches that read a bit like a travelogue when Irene goes to London, but Irene Huss is such a strong, likeable character, that I do want to meet her again. However I do like the way Tursten weaves elements of 'ordinary' policing and family life into the plot. I also like the gruff and down to earth character of her boss Criminal Superintendent Sven Andersson.

THE TORSOTranslated from Swedish in 2006. The story begins with the gruesome discovery of part of a human torso in a black plastic bag on a shoreline near Goteborg. Detective Inspector Irene Huss, whose superintendent suspects she is a magnet for killings, is one of the team called in to investigate. When they learn of a similar torso turning up 2 years earlier in Copenhagen, Irene is sent to liaise with the Copenhagen police. Her investigations reveal strong connections between communities in Sweden and Denmark. As people she visits seem to die shortly afterwards, it certainly appears her superintendent's joke has at least a grain of truth. Irene herself is targetted by someone who does not want the connections fully revealed. Some detailed descriptions will not suit the squeamish. Irene Huss is strong, level-headed, intuitive, highly principled, but sometimes fallible.

My rating 4.6

DETECTIVE INSPECTOR HUSSThe first in the Irene Huss series. Originally titled in Swedish "The Broken Tang Horse". The Vicious Crimes Unit that Irene Huss is part of are investigating the death of a wealthy businessman who fell over 20 metres from the balcony of this apartment to the footpath below just as his wife and son arrived home and were getting out of their car.The business man, Richard von Knecht, has recently celebrated his 60th birthday, and he and his wife Sylvia their 30th wedding anniversary. The building they live in is a fortress with their apartment on the top two floors and old friends living in apartments on other floors. Is it suicide? The day after his death, the building where his office was housed burns down, the result of an incendiary bomb, and Irene's Vicious Crimes Unit is investigating the connections. The book 'establishes' the character of Irene Huss: her physical endurance, her martial arts prowess, her family life, her chef/cook husband, teenage daughters, intuitive powers etc. There is an exploration of what it is that makes their 'team' work - the diversity of personalities and talents.Translated into English by Steven T. Murray 2003. I read this after I had read a later book THE TORSO. I would recommend reading them in order.

An elderly professor has disappeared without trace from his home in Uppsala. And then two other seventy year olds are found dead. The first appears to have been planning suicide but some one beat him to it. Three missing or dead seventy year old men just feels a little too coincidental to Ann Lindell working with the Violent Crimes Squad of the Uppsala Police. As the team begin to look for a serial killer, they try to work out who the next victim will be. Will it be Queen Silvia due to visit the town in just a few days?

Interwoven in the investigation is the arrival of a new member in the team, and Ann Lindell's own struggle to prove that she can manage to be both a vital member of the team, and also a single mother. The problem is that Ann Lindell is not always a team player, she doesn't keep everyone informed of what she is doing or where she is, and often turns her phone off when she needs thinking time.

THE CRUEL STARS OF THE NIGHT has a couple of intriguing sub-plots that add dimension to the main characters and intensify the main action. A good solid read.

15 March 2009

As with last week, this edition on my Sunday Salon posts is being auto-posted because I am on my way back to Australia from Left Coast Crime.

This week I am going to tell you about a couple of my other blog sites, both of which are spin offs from this one.

First of all Smik's Reviews lists all the reviews I've posted on MYSTERIES IN PARADISE in 2008 and 2009. There are over 130 reviews there at the moment.There are 4 lists to look at:

Ones that I have read recently

The full list of reviews for 2008 & 2009

2009 reviews

2008 reviews

Unfortunately there is no alphabetical listing, and I'm resisting creating one just at the moment, although I think probably such a thing will need to happen eventually. If you want to look for a particular author you are probably best to use your browser's Find tool.

This started off as a simple list on my main page at MYSTERIES IN PARADISE, but it got so long I decided to give it a page of its own. The purpose of this particular blog page is to point readers to other crime fiction blogsthey may enjoy. What I have done is to embed RSS feeds from nearly 100 blogs which then display a snippet from the most recent posting on that blog.

I'm sure when you read them you will then decide to add some of them to your own bookmarks or RSS feeds. However, if it suits you better, just bookmark my page, then come back and visit often, and check out the changing landscape.If you have a blog that is mainly crime fiction and you are not yet listed on Crime Fiction Journeys let me know so I can add you to the growing list.

14 March 2009

My intent in the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge is to read her books in order, so that I can get some idea of what she is doing, problems she is attempting to solve, and her development as a writer. If you look at some of my reviews you will see that I have been able to undertake some of this reflection.

Currently I am managing about a book a month.

I am mainly borrowing the books from my local library and as such am a bit subject to some outside influences, and as a result may do a little out of order reading.

I have set up a block over in the right hand column called Agatha Christie Reading Challenge (with the same logo as this post) where I am listing the books I'm currently reading and those I've finished.The challenge is called ACRC so each review will be preceded by those letters.

Contribute your blog postings about any Agatha Christie novels to the monthly carnival. Make an agreement with yourself that whenever you complete reading an Aggie you will write a blog posting about it and then submit the posting to the carnival.If you are participating in the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge thenwrite updates like this one and submit them to the Carnival.Let us know what progress you are making.

MOMENTO MORI was published by Muriel Spark (1918-2006) in 1959 (Macmillan). Don't you just love the original cover?The title appears in my little green book towards the end of 1976.It is Muriel Spark's second book.

Dame Lettie Colston, 79 and pioneer penal reformer, has much in common with the elderly residents of the Maud Long Medical Ward. All are united by scorn, resentment, boredom - and the humour that masks the awareness of impending death. Then the insidious telephone calls begin.The title translates to "Remember you must die" and is the message delivered by a series of insidious phone-calls made to Dame Lettie other residents. Who is making the calls and why? The recipients reflect on their past lives whilst trying to identify the culprit...

It was the beginning of a long and distinguished career for Muriel Spark, who continued to write until 2004. She is another of these cross genre authors, both literary and crime fiction.

In 2001 the Catholic Book Club presented the Campion Award to her for “bequeath[ing] to us a literary legacy of ‘prime’ quality”.

The Scottish Arts Council created the Muriel Spark International Fellowship in 2004, with Canadian Margaret Atwood winning the inaugural prize.

In 2004 DAME Muriel Spark became the first recipient of a new literary award in celebration of the 21st anniversary of the Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF). The EIBF Enlightenment Award will be given annually to a writer who has made a distinguished contribution to world literature and thought.

Tomorrow is the day at Left Coast Crime when our little panel swings into action, item 67, 9-9.45 am on Thursday morning, 12 March to be precise.

I thought participants might appreciate the handout being on line, and those of you unable to be there, would appreciate also being able to see what we are talking about.

I hope I will be able to post later a photo of our accumulated loot for the panel, which includes our own version of "tasting Australia". In true Australian tradition of beer and chook raffles, participants will be given a raffle ticket as they come in the door, so hopefully each will have something apart from a sheet of paper to take away with them.

Audio Books (checked by Kathy)SKIN AND BONE, by Kathryn Fox, and VOODOO DOLL, by Leah Giarratano, and THE CORONER’S LUNCH, by Colin Cotterill are available in audible from amazon.co.uk. I can’t find them in the U.S.

All the remaining books are available through audible.com here in the U.S.:Gary Disher: CHAIN OF EVIDENCEPeter Temple: THE BROKEN SHORE, DEAD POINTPeter Carey: THE TRUE STORY OF THE NED KELLY GANG, HIS ILLEGAL SELF, THEFT: A LOVE STORY, JACK MAGGS, MY LIFE AS A FAKEKatherine Howell: FRANTICMichael Robotham: SUSPECT, LOST, THE NIGHT FERRY, and, in March of 2009 SHATTERSteve Toltz: A FRACTION OF THE WHOLE,Kerry Greenwood: MURDER ON A MIDSUMMER NIGHT, MURDER IN MONTPARNASSE, AWAY WITH THE FAIRIES: A PHRYNE FISHER MYSTERY, THE CASTLEMAINE MURDERS: A PHRYNE FISHER MYSTERY, DEVIL’S FOOD, MURDER IN THE DARK: A PHRYNE FISHER MYSTERY, TRICK OR TREAT, DEATH BY WATER: A PHRYNE FISHER MYSTERY, RUDDY GORE: A PHRYNE FISHER MYSTERYSydney Bauer: UNDERTOWAdrian McKinty: THE BLOOMSDAY DEAD, THE DEAD YARD, HIDDEN RIVER,DEAD I WELL MAY BESara Douglass: HADES' DAUGHTER: THE TROY GAME, BOOK I (UNABRIDGED)Emma Darcy: WHO KILLED ANGELIQUE, WHO KILLED BIANCA, WHO KILLED CAMILLAGeoffrey McGeachin: D-E-D DEAD!Tara Moss: COVET, FETISH, HITMichael MacConnell MALESTROMKerry McGinnis THE WADI TREEGabrielle Lord WHIPPING BOYSonya Hartnett OF A BOYJane R. Goodall: THE WALKER; THE VISITOR.

Georgie, Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie, related to the king of England through his grandmother Queen Victoria, is 34th in line to the English throne. Georgie is the product of her father's second marriage to a "bolter", and at 21 is living in Castle Rannoch with no real income and no prospects.

She determines to take charge of her own future when she overhears a conversation between her half brother Binky and his wife Fig about the Queen's intentions to use Georgie as marriage bait for a visiting Romanian Royal. Georgie decides to make her escape to Rannoch House in London despite the fact that she will have no maid or other help in the house with her. Queen Mary hears that she has come to London and commissions Georgie to be her eyes and ears in the Prince of Wales' escalating affair with an American woman.

In the meantime Georgie has to decide how she will earn an income and life becomes rather complicated when a man is drowned fully clothed in a bath in Rannoch House. Both Georgie and her brother Binky are suspected because the dead man had been claiming that he was owed their dead father's estate through an old gambling debt. Meanwhile Georgie, always a rather clumsy person, begins to realise that the little accidents happening to her, each of which could so easily have been fatal, might not be so accidental after all. Who among her friends would want her dead?

This is a cozy with a difference, a light and enjoyable read.

My rating: 4.2

I reviewed the second in the series A ROYAL PAIN recently. Bowen has set these novels at the beginning of the 1930s. England is in depression, unemployment is high, and here is an aristocracy that has not yet realised that the old way of life is nearly gone. Many of the minor aristocracy will soon be like Binky, struggling with the upkeep of two large houses, and many like Georgie will have to think in terms of getting "real" jobs. Some among Georgie's friends have already done so. There are some delightful characters to meet in these books including Georgie's Cockney grandfather.

I am told by people who've been to both that LCC is more intimate than Bouchercon. Certainly there is plenty of opportunity to hear most authors speak more than once, and also times when you are able to chat informally. The sessions are well spaced too so you are not rushing from one to the other.

One thing that occurs to me though is that this is almost the perfect setting for a closed-room mystery Death at the Crime Fiction Convention. So many places where one could die: dramatically while talking on a panel, quietly in the pool or the spa, flamboyantly at the volcano etc.

10 March 2009

First published in 1929 by William Collins. The edition I read was Fontana Paperback 1984, 189 pages, ISBN 0-00-616541-9

A weekend house party at the fashionable country mansion Chimneys turns to tragedy when Gerry Wade, one of a party of young men employed by the Foreign Office, dies in his sleep. Always late for breakfast, surely even Gerry could not have slept through the eight alarm clocks set to ring one after the other at half past six in the morning. The doctor's verdict is that Gerry took an overdose of a sleeping potion. But wait, one of the clocks is missing: there are only 7 dials lined up, ticking away on the mantlepiece of his bedroom.

Another of the young men from the Foreign Office is dead within weeks. His dying words to Lady Eileen (Bundle) Brent, into the path of whose car he stumbles, are Seven Dials and Tell .... Jimmy Thesiger.

Gerry Wade had referred to Seven Dials in his last letter to his sister, so Bundle and Jimmy begin to investigate the connections. The policeman investigating the death of the latest victim is Superintendent Battle who first appeared in THE SECRET OF CHIMNEYS and whom Bundle knows quite well.

Some readers won't have picked up on the connection between THE SEVEN DIALS MYSTERY and Agatha Christie's earlier novel THE SECRET OF CHIMNEYS. Not only is the location the same, but some of the same characters whom we already know and trust make an appearance: Lady Eileen Brent, Superintendent Battle, and Bill Eversleigh.

Sir Oswald Coote, an industrialist of great influence and power in the British economy, has been renting Chimneys from the Marquis of Caterham for 2 years. After the death of Gerry Wade Lord Caterham and his daughter Bundle move back into Chimneys.

Other things to consider:

Is Agatha Christie in this, her 9th novel in as many years, still looking for a protagonist/detective?This is Superintendent Battle's second appearance. To me he is still a rather stolid character, and we almost never see how his mind works. By the end of THE SEVEN DIALS MYSTERY we certainly know more about him, but will we see him again?

It is interesting to note that THE SEVEN DIALS MYSTERY is almost a sequel to THE SECRET OF CHIMNEYS and carries with it the same sense of espionage and industrial secrets being sold to enemies. At the time of its publication, fans of Agatha Christie would have recognised this.

In places in THE SEVEN DIALS MYSTERY the dialogue is almost theatrical, stagish, with swift repartee and sometimes very evocative of a comedy of errors.

Christie presents a number of possibilities, there are many characters to whom we must attach a real identity and so there are many puzzles to be solved. But it could also be said that here again is another case where she doesn't quite "play fair" with the reader.

BEWARE POSSIBLE SPOILER: Agatha Christie plays with her readers. I won't disclose too much here, but the reader actually trusts the culprit and at times sees events from his point of view, with little indication that he is not to be trusted. Other people whom we trust also trust this character, so not only do we have to sift through the red herrings so liberally provided, but we have to deal with an unreliable witness.

Already Monday! Yesterday LCC 09 began in earnest. I attended sessions where authors told us what they like to read, learnt about the History of the Mystery from Kate Stine, about books set in Victorian England, had my own 15 minutes of fame , and then went to what for me was the pick of the day, Funny Bones, a panel moderated by Donna Andrews, about using humour in mysteries.

Last night we went to a luau (feast), were blessed by an Hawaian priest, watched some hula dancing, and then saw a one act play House Without a Key, a mystery set in 1925 in Honolulu. It is a Charlie Chan mystery, with Charlie Chan played excellently by Ron Serrao.

Already this morning we have been to a continental breakfast, featuring 12 new authors. And Vicki Delaney has given me a reprint of her first novel WHITEOUT.

9 March 2009

Don't forget, if you have written any blog posting about an Agatha Christie novel (or play) you can submit it for linking in the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge Carnival.

The Carnival can be found here, and it is a good way to make people aware of your blog.The next Carnival will be posted after 20 March.To add your submission just go to the Carnival collecting space and put in the URL, your details, and a comment about the post.

8 March 2009

Things have got off to an excellent start. The Aussie contingent (the Fair Dinkum Crime panel) are by and large all here, although I have yet to meet Sarah.

Yesterday we did the Discovery Circle Island orientation tour and the grey skies and rain followed us all the way. But we visited a smoking caldera, and rain forest, and waterfalls and Hilo, so now we more or less know where everything is.

This morning began with a 4MA breakfast with about 14 attendees, and we exchanged white elephant items. We've now completed registration and collected a formidable bag with its impressive complement of books. So now a quandary. Do I read the book I had intended to read or choose one from the bag?Perhaps since Rhys Bowen is here, and I hope to go to one of the sessions where she is speaking, I'll read HER ROYAL SPYNESS which is in the bag. I reviewed A ROYAL PAIN a few days back.

There are some orientation lectures happpening this afternoon, and then this evening a welcome ceremony with "Desserts to Die For".

As always the programme is full of those conflicts where you would like to be in several places at once, not the least that I'm doing my 15 minute Talk Story in competition with the panel where Helene Tursten is speaking. Oh well! I'll just have to put up with people telling me what I missed out on.

This edition on my Sunday Salon posts is being auto-posted while I am at Left Coast Crime, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to tell you about the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge (ACRC) and it's associated Blog Carnival.

I began ACRC last year as a personal challenge to read the novels of Agatha Christie in publication order. I have read quite a large number of them before but the order of reading has been rather haphazard. These days I tend to like to read a series in order, and often when I am reviewing a new book, I advise readers to go back and read earlier ones in the series.So I wondered what I would learn if I treated the novels of Agatha Christie in the same way. I then invited people to join me on this journey if they liked, and a number said they would.

At the beginning of this year I decided to set up a monthly blogging carnival called, predictably, the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge Carnival, which enables anyone who is posting reviews of Agatha Christie books to have them featured in the Carnival. So far there have been two carnivals, and the next is due to be posted on March 23, which means submissions close about March 20. So all you have to do is go to the Carnival site, follow the instructions there on how to submit your post and I will consider it for posting in the next carnival.

I would love it if you could spread the word, either by talking about this post in your blog, or by putting the widget for the carnival in your blog.

7 March 2009

Some blogging friends are coming up with such interesting features to their blogs.Dorte at DJs kimiblog has been running something called Bait in Box.

She's been using interesting images like the one to the right, but primarily what she is doing is running a little competition among her readers.

She gives you a quote of some lines from a book, crime fiction of course, and generally a British author, but sometimes an expatriate, and asks you to guess who. Only you are not allowed to say who!

The rules are as follows:1) if you think you can guess who wrote it, please post your guess.2) if you recognize the quotation, please post a clue to other readers - do not spoil the fun by giving too much away.

Dorte herself gives clues, and the "bait in a box" is a prelude to a book review she will be posting in the next few days. It is a very nifty idea!

6 March 2009

Anybody who has visited London is familiar with the Portobello Road and its markets. Some of the families, rich and poor, who live in the streets off Portobello Road have lived in the district for generations. Eugene Wren's very successful art gallery of fine arts in upmarket Kensington Church Street for example, is the successor to the one his father had in a glossy arcade quite a long way up the road. Gene, seemingly a confirmed bachelor now in his 50s lives in the more fashionable Chepstow Villas.

In contrast is the Gibson family, once market stall holders, now most of the family either lives on the dole or on the products of breaking and entering. Lance, unemployed, lives with his step-uncle Gib,an elder of the Church of the Children of Zebulun. His girlfriend has thrown him out, and his parents won't let him in. Lance needs instant money to repair his girlfriend's teeth after he knocks her front tooth out, and burglary provides afeasible option.

When Joel Roseman has a heart attack in the street he becomes a patient of Eugene's lady friend Ella, who is a GP in a nearby practice. Ella soon realises that Joel's problems are as much psychological as they are physical, and outside her capabilities. And in an illustration that the problems right on our own doorstep often go unrecognised by our nearest and dearest, Eugene has an addiction he doesn't dare tell Ella about.

Ruth Rendell has taken the lives of three principal characters and the circles within which they move, and played with the concept of degrees of separation, forging connections between them that we would never have expected.

In a sense, although several crimes take place in the novel, this isn't really a crime fiction novel. For me, it is more like those novels that Rendell has written under her Barbara Vine pseudonym. I've felt that with the last couple of Rendell stand alones, most recently in in THE WATER'S LOVELY. It is almost as if she has changed her mind about what goes under what name. As others have commented, this isn't Rendell at her best. She struggles with a couple of plots to make them interesting, and I found the one involving Eugene Wren particularly tedious. However she still writes well, but the crime fiction strands are really not tensioned enough.